Chamber and committees

Two Scottish Government civil servants from Planning, Architecture and Regeneration Division are involved in the Scotland + Venice project on a varying part time basis.

We know that deprivation is a significant driver of excess mortality and reduced life expectancy. Reducing poverty and inequality therefore sits at the heart of our investment across all portfolios and remains the best way of improving life expectancy.

Increasing life expectancy across Scotland remains a clear ambition for this Government and we are using all the powers and resources available to us to create a fairer Scotland. We are doing that by ensuring health services are accessible to all, committing £19bn to public services over the next year; committing £4 billion in social security and welfare payments over the next financial year; and extending the Scottish Child Payment to families with eligible under 16s – by increasing it to £25 per week per child.

Furthermore, our Care and Wellbeing Portfolio, as the principle strategic reform vehicle in Health and Social Care, is being designed to promote a ‘health in all policies’ approach in order to strengthen cross-government collaboration on key and critical issues that contribute to the goal of reducing inequalities and increasing life expectancy.

Against the backdrop of continued impacts from Covid-19, public spending constraints and the cost of living crisis, we are doing all we can to protect Scotland’s culture and historic environment, to ensure our diverse and world-class cultural scene and rich heritage continue to thrive, delivering on the vision of the Culture Strategy.

The Scottish Government will invest £278m in Scotland’s culture and heritage sector in 2023-24 which will support a range of actions set out in the Culture Strategy. Further information about the breakdown of individual budget lines will be shared in the coming weeks. Additionally, we will publish a refreshed Culture Strategy Action Plan in spring 2023, which will set out how we will continue to deliver on the aims of the Culture Strategy.

The matter of strike action is a for Bòrd na Gidhlig to consider and to ensure that any vital services to the Gaelic community continue to be supported.

The cost of closing facilities managed by National Museums of Scotland as a result of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023 is not currently estimated. This estimation would be carried out by National Museums of Scotland themselves rather than by Scottish Government.

The cost of closing sites managed by Historic Environment Scotland as a result of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023 is not currently estimated. This estimation would be carried out by Historic Environment Scotland themselves rather than by Scottish Government.

The cost of closing facilities managed by National Galleries of Scotland as a result of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023 is not currently estimated. This estimation would be carried out by National Galleries of Scotland themselves rather than by Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government discussed with Historic Environment Scotland the effect of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action.

Although four Historic Environment Scotland sites could not open due to the industrial action, the vast majority of Historic Environment Scotland’s visitor attractions, including the most popular sites - Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle, remained open to the public on 1 February 2023.

The Scottish Government provides investment to assist housing partners to deliver social and affordable homes. Over £327 million has been made available to Local Authority areas in the Highlands and Islands for the current parliamentary term. Local Authorities, through Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs), identify their housing priorities and use the Scottish Government funding to address housing need. Figures on actual homes completed, in 2021-22 and to the end of September 2022, are available on our webpages Affordable Housing Supply Programme: quarterly updates on completions - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Planned homes, for years 2023-24 to 2025-26 within the Highland, Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney SHIPs exceed 1,800, but a split between social and affordable homes on some projects are unlikely to be determined, so accurate figures are not available. SHIPs are published documents and should be available on local authorities’ webpages.

The Scottish Government discussed with National Museums of Scotland the effect of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023. NMS opened the 1st floor of the National Museum of Scotland – which includes Animal World, Kingdom of Scots, Discoveries and Imagine galleries. The National War Museum was closed. The National Museum of Rural Life was open as usual. The National Museum of Flight is currently closed during the week during winter and so was unaffected by the industrial action.